Snow Brings Major Impacts to the UK and Europe

Snow has continued to pester Europe over the last few days and has become a serious problem across portions of the UK and northern Europe. Transportation has endured delays, major sports events have been cancelled, and more cancellations are expected.

Many awoke to snow today across portions of the UK, especially across Scotland. Twitter has been inundated with pictures of castles and Scottish roadways with moderate to heavy snow cover, especially for late March.

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In England and Scotland today, a large number of football (soccer) and rugby matches have been cancelled, with the most notable being Northern Ireland's World Cup qualifying match agains Russia.

Racing events in Doncaster and Newbury were also called off.

The problem of cancelled sports is not new to the continent this year. For example Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, a cycling race in Belgium, was cancelled earlier this month. Even the Italian Rivera was not immune, as Milan-San Remo, a monument cycling classic was forced to remove two major climbs midway through the race after conditions rapidly deteriorated.

On the slightly more serious matter of Transportation, delays are widespread across the UK this weekend, as snow has made travel nearly impossible in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Airports in North Ireland, as well as Leeds Bradford international airport, suspended all flights due to adverse weather conditions.

According to The Guardian, over 35,000 customers in Northern Ireland are reportedly without power.

Even in places where it was too warm to snow, heavy rains led to a new problem in the form of landslides. A flat was leveled by a landslide in Cornwall, reportedly killing one woman, according to the Independent.

Over the remainder of today, snow will be tapering off for most locations. While this should eventually improve the travel situation and allow outdoor activities to continue, most of the UK and northern Europe will struggle to warm up for the rest of March, leading to plenty of discomfort.